Eight Elements of Thought and Reasoning

Eight Elements of Thought and Reasoning
Felles Grant
Grantham University
29 January 2014
Eight Elements of Thought and Reasoning

Description: The Target category is made up of purpose and interpretation due to the fact that with these two thought processes you are trying to get to a destination or conclusion all while staying on target to reach your goal. Purpose is the process by which we as people strive toward an aim or objective, while formulating resolutions or ideas along the way. Interpretation is how we see different events of life with our own eyes or our minds eye, then we draw our own conclusions about what we have witnessed. Purpose and interpretation were put into the Target category because they both deal with trying to reach a certain aim or inference to finalize the thought process of a particular event.

Description: The category of Opinion deals with ones point of view and assumptions. Our opinions are judgments that most of the time are not fact based the same as our perspectives and presuppositions. Point of view is simply a mental opinion or attitude from which we view things in relation to what is being said. Assumptions are things taken for granted or claimed and accepted as truths without evidence, a presupposition. Assumptions and point of view are placed into the new category of Opinion because they are not always related to fact and they go hand in hand. When you think about the two you can’t have one without the other, our assumptions help us to mold our points of view which is nothing more than an opinion.

Description: Knowledge is a category that is centered on the data, facts, and principles that we have acquired through our experiences. Information is knowledge, some we get from studies and some we get from experience and in situations where we have gathered information. Concepts are our ideas that we come up with from our observations and theories. Information and concepts were placed in the...

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...﻿8 Elements of Thoughts and Reasoning
Category I
Points of View and Purpose of Thinking
Frame of reference, perspective orientation alone with goal detailed.
Category II
Implications and Consequence and Assumptions
Presuppositions taking for granted
Category III
Questions at issue and Information
Problem, data, observations, facts, experiences
Category IV
Concepts and Interpretation and Inference
Conclusions, solutions, and theories.
The Elements of Thought is a model of thinking developed by Dr. Richard Paul to help us understand how we can divide up the different parts of thinking.
Understanding the Elements of Thought allows us to take apart, in a logical and dispassionate way, our thinking and the thinking of others.
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...Nosich’s “The Elements of Reasoning” and Elder’s “The Standards for Thinking” both focus on various techniques people can adopt to become better critical thinkers. According to Nosich, two conditions must exist to be considered critical thinking: the thinking must be reflective and it must meet high standards. These two conditions lead us into the eightselements of reasoning presented in the readings.
The first element focused on is “Purpose,” which includes objectives, goals, your desired outcome, intention, and function. The purpose serves as a center for asking relevant and reflective questions regarding the topic at hand. In Paper #1, the purpose of my writing was to inform outsiders as to what I expected to gain from the Essence of Enterprise class. The first sentence of the paper explicitly states what the aim of the class is, leading into the various aspects focused on that are necessary to becoming a good decision maker.
The next element of critical thinking is the “Question at Issue.” This involves clearly stating the issue at hand and specifically identifying the areas of concern in your reasoning. In this stage you must determine if the question at hand is reasonable and relevant, as well as understand the requirements for solving the problem. When beginning the last paper, the question at issue revolved around what exactly the class will focus...

...The four real distinct categories are deductive, inductive, abductive or inference, and analogical. Deductive Reasoning: Consist of Implication and Consequences, and Interpretation and Inference. Deductive reasoning is one of the two basic forms of valid reasoning. It starts with an assumed hypothesis or theory, which is why it has been called 'hypothetical-deduction; this assumption may be well-accepted or it may be rather precarious - nevertheless, for the argument it is not questioned.
This is the opposite of inductive reasoning, which involves creating broad generalizations from specific observations. The basic idea of deductive reasoning is that if something is true of a class of things in general, this truth applies to all members of that class. One of the keys for sound deductive reasoning, then, is to be able to properly identify members of the class, because incorrect categorizations will result in unsound conclusions.
Inferences are interpretations or conclusions you come to. Inferring is what the mind does in figuring something out. Implications are claims or truths that logically follow from other claims or truths. Implications follow from thoughts. Consequences follow from actions.
Inductive Reasoning: Entails Concepts and Information. It is the process of reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed to support the...

...communication (Dryzek, 2003, p. 20).
Ideal speech does not take place
Some of the most insightful critiques of ideal speech have come from feminist theory. Fraser (1985), for example, argues that rational discourse ignores women’s oppressed group status. The determination of a person’s right to speak within a discourse is a socially constructed act and some women in some cultures are limited in their actions. The goal of communicative consensus assumes that individuals are capable of working together towards consensus, however it fails to recognise the fact that certain groups in society are not given equal status and power (Fraser, 1985, p. 114). Another feminist critique is that ideal speech assumes only the relative importance of reasoning and rational understanding, and is silent on the role of feelings and emotions. Feminists believe that understanding and consensus cannot be achieved unless feelings and emotions are also considered and given equal weight. Griffiths (1988, p. 147) says feelings ‘reflect both factual and evaluative judgments’ and thus, should not be overlooked.
Another argument is that it is impossible for there to be a consensus on values and consequently, discussions would go on indefinitely. This argument is based on the premise that people have varying personal interests and vastly different conceptions of the world and of social norms. These differences arise out of the many cultural, religious, social and historical practices...

...The Nature of Reasoning
What is Reasoning?
 a mental act whereby starting with several judgments which we relate to one another.
 the process which uses arguments, statements, premises and axioms to define weather a statement is true or false, resulting in a logical or illogical reasoning.
 the process of using a rational, systematic series of steps based on sound mathematical procedures and given statements to arrive at a conclusion.
 the cognitive skills with which we reach sound conclusions in order to make decisions and solve our daily life problems.
In logical reasoning, an if-then statement (also known as a conditional statement) is a statement formed when one thing implies another and can be written and read as "If P then Q." A contrapositive is the conditional statement created when negating both sides of the implication and can be written and read as "If not Q, then not P." Anything that is not proven is known as a conjecture.
In today’s logical reasoning three different types of reasoning can be distinguished, known as deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and abductive reasoning based on respectively deduction, induction and abduction.
Deductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning originates from the philosophy and mathematics and is the most obvious...

...EXAMINE THE HELLENIC AND UNIVERSAL ELEMENTS IN ARISTOTLE’S POLITICAL THOUGHT
Aristotle was not only a political thinker but also a political scientist. If Plato is considered the first political philosopher Aristotle is rightly called the first political scientist. He studies politics from an empirical and scientific perspective. The method he used in the study of politics was inductive and analytical. He reached the conclusions after collection and analysis of data. He studied the constitution of a number of then existing Greek city-states and thereby laid the foundation of a new subject called the Comparative Politics. His method was therefore, not only inductive and analytical but also empirical and comparative.
Aristotle advocates the doctrine of natural origin of state. The state has come into being following a long process of evolution, from family through village or community to the state. Man is social animal who likes to live with others. This very nature of man gave birth to the institution of family. But family was unable to meet the increasing necessity of human beings. Therefore they created the village or the community. It was the half-way house between the individual and the state. The village or the community was also insufficient to meet the increasing needs of men. Thus state came into being to meet and satisfy the greater needs of human beings.
Aristotle advocates the organic theory of state. The relation between...

... respectively meaning knowledge and discourse, thus means the discourse concerning with the manifold aspects of knowledge. It is the fruit of analytical thinking, rational outlook, keen observation, empirical experience, clear insight and critical knowledge (Na Kantācāmi, 2000).-“.. is the theory of knowledge and justified belief (Audi, 2003 p. 1060 as cited in Pernecky and Jamal, 2010).”--“…literally means “theory of knowledge.” It arose in the early history of Greek thought when Paramenides, Plato and Aristotle attempted to attain ineluctable certitude about the world. From a research point of view, epistemology includes presuppositions or standard beliefs about how people know and how researchers know what they know…it addresses how researchers view the nature, basis, and limits of knowledge, and the ways in which they separate knowledge from belief. (Maruyama, 1973 as cited in Rothe, 2000, p.10).” -“…is a science that identifies generalities (ie. General laws) about the effectiveness of particular reasoning processes and methods that are applicable across all contexts- such as subject domain, stage of development of discipline, goals of inquiry, persons and groups conducting the inquiry (Solomon, 1995, p.353 as cited in van Gigch, 2006).”-“… is the study of the nature of knowledge and justification; in particular the study of (a)the defining components, (b) the substantive conditions or sources, and (c) the limits of’ knowledge and...

...Legal Reasoning is a reasonable reasoning before the decision had been made. Legal reasoning required us to consider the criteria beyond those imposed by the strict necessity of logic. It has followed certain criteria or rules which applied in practical reasoning. For an example, a judge has to give judgment by following the precedent case and Federal Constitution, legislators have to predict the impact of their laws before amendment whereby following the two-third majority of Parliament and lawyers have to advice their clients by obeying the bar council. Therefore, the key link between all these activities is that they are built upon some kind of reasoning process. In short, the answer founded by judges, lawyers and legislators are not only based on the pre-existing knowledge of the law, but there is creativity of working out an answer according to a whole range of supposedly rational criteria.
However, difference reasoning from having a reason. Reasoning reflects a particular kind of decision making process. The process of deciding on a given course of action based on rationality. It is important to distinguished reasoning from the colloquial ideal of “having a reason”. Because the people are quite relaxed about the use of language, it is easy, but wrong, to think of reasoning as simply a matter of cause and effect. But it is not,...